


Finding Yuugo

by reafterthought



Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Story Series | Digimon World Series
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Gen, drabblechap, ffn challenge: becoming the tamer king challenge, ffn challenge: diversity writing challenge, ffn challenge: manga/game flash bingo, ffn challenge: the easter egg basket (2016), ffn challenge: ultimate sleuth challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-02 17:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 3,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17267966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reafterthought/pseuds/reafterthought
Summary: [Cyber Sleuth] They're twins, so she can always find Yuugo inside of her...can't she?





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges:
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #025 - drama (genre)  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, prologue: event 1 - write about a decision of any kind

Yuugo never liked her long hair. Said it looked all wrong on him, but she could get away with his hairstyle and just chose to grow it out to be different. Which she did, in a way. Moreso she simply didn't care enough to style it to perfection and let the strands grow and collect split ends and just ran a comb and some oil through it every day and called it neat.

And then Yuuya was gone and she couldn't even look into the mirror and pretend there was him because her too long hair. So she just hacked it off. Yuuya's gentle teasing never accomplished that frustration his absence had. The long strands fell in a messy heap: over her shirt, Yuugo's sweat pants, over the sneakers and she's not sure who's sneakers she's wearing because they're the same and it really doesn't matter. When Yuugo hits his growth spurt, then it will, but as far as she knew, fifteen year olds in comas didn't go through growth spurts.

Fifteen year olds in comas also didn't stare out of a mirror reflection, but she pulled on one of Yuugo's hoodies and ruffled her now short-cropped hair and could pretend for a fleeting moment that he did.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #065 - paltry  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, prologue: event 2 - write about something unwanted

They were both naturally quiet. Had to be, considering how the big empty house would echo about them. So Yuugo's absense didn't make much of a difference in the voice levels when in a crowd: at school, on the way home -

But the empty house made his absence echo just that much louder. Made her want to blast music to drown it out and she hated blasting music. But she hated that absolute silence more. Where she could hear every step and the teasing echoes that rebounded. Where she could pretend for fleeting moments that it was just Yuugo walking behind her even though he tended to walk more beside her or in front of her. And to think that would frustrate her before. Like he was trying to protect her from something.

And it wasn't even a car accident or something equally cliched that struck him down, in the end. Some sort of sickness instead that they just couldn't explain.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #386 - cactus  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, prologue: event 3 - write about suddenly recalling something

She had no idea when it started, and she could kick herself ten times over for it because she  _should_. Who else knows Yuugo that well? No-one.

But, apparently, she didn't know well enough either. Not well enough to stop him collapsing in the middle of the street and winding up in the ICU, at least. At the time, it had been right out of the blue. No aura, no predecessor. Just a slight teetering and then he was flat on the sidewalk and she was three steps ahead before the thump caught up to her.

Later, she slowly crawled through the days and picked up little things: the way he'd stare distantly into space, the way he'd tire out more quickly, the way his throat was more often dried and parched, the way he'd wince as though he could hear a sound she couldn't and maybe never would, and she'd wonder. She'd wonder why the  _hell_  he hadn't said something to her - and why she hadn't picked it up like a good twin and called him out on it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #024 - bird  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, prologue: event 5 - write about a meeting that's not a first meeting

She was spending more time in the park, these days. The birds chirping were far less grating on her nerves than the large empty house. Across from the hospital because she kind of had to be. Not too far from Yuugo. Not too close either because she couldn't stay in the ICU all the time.

Someone plopped beside her: proof she wasn't the only one thinking so. Taller than her. Shocking red hair. A carbon copy of the boy in the bed next to Yuugo's but not. Just like her in Yuugo's hoodie and jeans and the sneakers that weren't any different.

Except the last time she'd seen him, she'd been in a dress and distinctly Yuuko. So when he struck up conversation and asked who she was, she told him she was Yuugo.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #111 - doze  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, prologue: event 6 - write about a call for help

Yuugo had turned her insomniac. He'd turned her into a lot of things, over time, and she'd done the same to him. Latest was the effeminate features his ghost wore, looking less like the Yuugo she recalled and more like the one she became...

And the insomnia, because, really, Yuugo was doing enough sleeping for the both of them. But the human body could only last so long without sleep and she found herself lying awake in bed and then paying for it layer, dozing in the park or the waiting room or school and when she slept, there was a pale white boy who looked more like Yuugo than she ever could even though the colours were all wrong and he was reaching out for her -

And she bolted, because Yuugo was never, and would never be, that white. A sickly light grey in the ICU for now, but never white.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #273 - dog  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 1: event 2 - write about the effects of curiosity  
> The Easter Egg Basket (2016), day 21 - write a drabble a day for seven days (day 2)

The park grew stale. The dogs followed her with their beady eyes like she was a predator and the birds flew out of sight. They knew something was wrong. Knew she didn't fit in Yuugo's hoodie and Yuugo's jeans and Yuugo's sneakers and the faint smell of Yuugo's hospital room (and that doesn't measure up to his, because he's been in there for weeks now and nowhere else and she's an intermittent visitor at best) -

But they don't growl, don't squawk, because she's no threat to them, just an uncomfortable ghost. And maybe they're confused. She's a contradiction to their simple minds and stronger senses. That boy couldn't tell the difference because her disguise was so flawless to him but the animals can smell the difference, can sense it with some other well honed sense -

And they watch her, waiting for the other shoe to drop and it makes her skin tingle and her feet move faster because they know something, or they're guessing, but they won't say.

And unless it's news of Yuugo waking up, she doesn't want to know .


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #498 - pretty  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 1: event 5 - write the beginnings of an adventure  
> The Easter Egg Basket (2016), day 21 - write a drabble a day for seven days (day 4)

The news of the white boy spread over the net and she followed closely, waiting for the proof that might never come. And it hadn't, yet. Sightings and that was all they were. Rumours spiralling out of control without a care of who they struck and hurt.

Well, she'd have to fix that, then. And find Yuugo as well. And they weren't the same, though no-one else had said. No-one else knew him that well. They just said a boy wearing a hooded top and pants and sneakers and pale under all of it.

Some even entertained the notion that it was a girl under those clothes, and the thought made her laugh. It was the other way around, after all.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #385 - bustling  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 1: event 6 - write about an awkward interaction  
> The Easter Egg Basket (2016), day 21 - write a drabble a day for seven days (day 5)

The hospital was turning into a zoo. It was almost disgusting, but they gave her nothing and took nothing away. She still made it through to the ICU, to pale lost Yuugo lying in his bed like sleeping beauty.

She couldn't wear his hood or pants though, not with tales of the ghost. She had to go in her own darker attires: skirts and dresses but she kept his shoes, cold without his feet and burning like smelling salts without his scent.

But then someone stopped her. A tall woman, who seemed to know more than she implied. Who asked about who she came to visit. And about the white boy ghost. She felt like a scolded schoolgirl under the other woman's gaze but she held her ground. Lied and said she knew as much as every plain Jane and John wandering the halls.

And then she fled before the other woman could realise that one plus one, in this crazy world, somehow equalled three.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Challenges
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 2: event 1 - write about a surprise encounter  
> The Easter Egg Basket (2016), day 21 - write a drabble a day for seven days (day 6)

Apparently, one plus one equalled a lot more than three. After the white ghost were the rumours of an epidemic, then another set of rumours that told of monsters running around.

She didn't believe that one until she ran into the monsters herself. And a few of them decided to throw their lot with her. After she retrieved the shoe (Yuugo's, and she hit herself afterwards because it was  _Yuugo's_ ) she'd thrown at them.

That turned out to be a good thing (the company, not the shoe), since she'd attracted the wrong type of attention too. Getting a hold of the white haired boy proved to be a lot more difficult when she had to fight data constructs in the process - but easier to.

Because the first time she tried to touch the ghost, her fingers passed right through.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 2: event 2 - write about foil characters  
> The Easter Egg Basket (2016), day 21 - write a drabble a day for seven days (day 7)

She was the strategist. Yuugo was the one who got emotionally involved in games, with avatars. And she was glad she was the game master in this one because those creatures, those digital constructs, would have made it a hell of a job for her soft-hearted brother.

He'd be trying to become friends with them and the whole shebang. She wasn't willing to attach herself to them and she didn't need to, either. They were the tools: both her arms and the distractors. And her spy when she found someone who could reach the corners she couldn't.

Though she didn't know what was so special about that red-haired boy who frequented the ICU as much as her to visit a lookalike red-haired boy, that meant he could reach those places she couldn't.

But he didn't know anything more about the white ghost boy, or Yuugo, it seemed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for
> 
> Diversity Writing Challenge, g2 - a drabble collection consisting of drabbles 50-500 words  
> Becoming the Tamer King Challenge, Training Peak  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 2: event 4 - write about a consequence of lacking information

The white ghost boy again. Aiba, the red-haired boy, is the one to encounter him.

 

They bump into each other in person after that, and he sees the resemblance between them.

 

A stranger sees the resemblance between her and the ghost. That meant the link was there after all, between Yuugo and him. But Yuugo...he wasn't a ghost. He was alive, clinging to life in the ICU with those machines monitoring him, aiding him -

 

She left Aiba to his devices and his digimon. Her others trialled after her and she brushed the tears away. If they'd been friends, they'd have come closer, comforted her. If Aiba was a friend, he'd have come running after her. But she didn't need any of them in that capacity. Her tears were for Yuugo alone, and what she needed from them was the means of getting him back to her.

 

And that meant finally catching this white boy ghost with her own hands - or the hands of her digimon.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #228 - peck  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, ch 2: event 5 - write about a game

Those who touch the white haired ghost will be erased from existence, or so the woman said.

She didn't care. The ghost had been barely a beak's reach away and was gone again. And Yuugo would not erase. She erased. She was the eraser, the white hole that repelled all. Yuugo was the black hole, that sucked them all in and clung to them forever.

 _Is that why you're sleeping?_ And that fleeting idea _hurts_ because it means that Yuugo would rather be with all those sleeping souls and half-baked constructs than with _her_. _I need you, bro._

No, that's not true, is it? Yuugo would never leave her alone.

It's a battle, then. A battle against this ghost, against EDEN and EDEN's syndrome, and against the woman too.

She shrugged off the woman's hand and left, promising a battle if she interfered again and the woman just watched her retreating back.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #228 - peck  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, yellow case 01: write about a fly in the ointment, literal or not.

She'd somehow misled the poplace. They thought her to be the ghost of the white boy and that hindered her now. She couldn't find the truth with such a glaring red herring in front of their faces and she couldn't wear Yuugo's hoodies outside without attracting that attention.

She scowled, and one day in a fit she threw the hoodie into the stream. It sunk, soggy, and the birds landed on it and pecked at its threads. Already useless though, already gone.

Of course, she'd always known she couldn't be Yuugo, but to be mistaken for him at a time like this...

But hadn't she already convinced herself the ghost she chased was only a hint towards and not the real thing?


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #326 - stingy  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, red quest 2 - write about a hunt

Machindramon was drawing away from her. That was fine; she could afford to be stingy and there was still RizeGreymon (and Aiba and his digimon, after a fashion) by her side. And she only needed to find Yuugo, anyway.

 

She followed the rumours of the white haired boy. Noticed how they seemed to run in two circles instead of one, even now when she hadn't tossed them an unintentional red herring to distract themselves with. And Machindramon would wander off. And she'd let.

 

And then one day she caught her quarry again (with Aiba too, what luck!) and found Machindramon there as well.

 

And she realised this wasn't the ghost of the white boy after all. This one wore a water-sodden hoodie with beak-shaped holes and was most definitely a girl.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #433 - growth  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 1 - write about an unusual friendship

Machindramon was on the side of the ghost. No, not a ghost, Yuuko corrected herself. The illusion, the red herring, of her own making. And a machine who shouldn't by definition be clouded with emotion and attachment chose that, while the dragon who burned bright red with fire still stood behind her.

 

How interesting. And how annoying, because they were now a hurdle between her and the real ghost, her and Yuugo.

 

And if she thought a little longer, she'd have realised she felt an echo of betrayal as well. _Why..._

 

But why did not matter. Machindramon chose his side. RizeGreymon did as well. Was Aiba going to stop her? No; he was standing back, watching. Maybe he understood. Maybe he knew it wasn't his place to interfere. Not here.

 

She won, of course. Even if RizeGreymon was an entire level weaker than Machindramon. Because she was reality. The illusion was just that, cast aside and floundering.

 

Still, she felt a pang when it vanished. And another when Machindramon crumbled into data-like dust.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #433 - growth  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 2 - write about the third time being the charm

This time, she caught the ghost, in RizeGreymon's vice-like grip. 'Yuugo!' she cried. 'I've found you! I've almost found you!'

 

Aiba jerked behind her, like he saw something he hadn't seen before. And lucky him, really. Learning the truth the poplace only wished they could grasp amidst the sea of rumours they floundered in.

 

RizeGreymon roared behind her. His grip was carefully tailored though. He could touch the ghost and he didn't want to rip him apart now that they had him.

 

But now that they had him, what did they do?

 

All she could think of was going back to the ICU, to his room.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #382 - hospitable  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 4 - write about comfort

The hospital room was a furnace. RizeGreymon's presence killed the cold frigid air in it and thensome. Aiba wiped sweat off his forehead but Yuuko didn't move. She barely noticed the heat. What mattered was the white ghost in RizeGreymon's claws, and the pale brother lying on his comatose bread.

 

Nothing happened. It wasn't the welcome back she'd envisioned at first and if she'd been alone, she'd have screamed and punched the wall - or thrown something at it. And then slid down the wall and cried.

 

But she wasn't alone, so she brushed all those pesky emotions out of her head and glared at the ghost. _What now?_


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #271 - happen  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 5 - write about shattered expectations

She was supposed to find the white boy ghost and then Yuugo would wake up and everything would be normal. Why wasn't it?

 

She allowed herself a small cry of frustration. And then she went through contingency plans. RizeGreymon tried to shove the ghost in bodily. It didn't work. Yuugo didn't look or feel any different either.

 

Which left the other possibility. That the white boy ghost was _preventing_ Yuugo, wherever he was, from coming back.

 

Which meant the ghost had to go.

 

But when RizeGreymon's grip tightened, Aiba's digimon had knocked him over and loosened the hold. Yuuko snarled. Aiba grabbed at her wrist and missed, and two separate but connected fights brought out in the ICU at that time.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #353 - Nokia/Yuuko  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 6 - write about unexpected allies

'Stop! Stop!'

 

It was that woman - though she looked younger now. Brighter. Nokia. And they did stop, if only because she'd somehow managed to, while yelling, kick Aiba in the head and Yuuko in the stomach. And she had her hands on her hips like a teacher scolding misbehaving children.

 

And she was, because the first words out of her mouth were: 'Takumi-kun, you've got a lot to learn about women.'

 

Yuuko snorted. She really couldn't help that one, and Nokia offered a smirk in her direction as well, before a frown. 'And Yuuko-chan, you really must not jump the gun so quickly, you know.'

 

That made Yuuko frown. 'What do you know?' she snapped.

 

'A lot,' replied Nokia with a grin. 'You two were just too fascinating. But - ' And she wagged her finger in the other girl's face. 'You can't just force things to change. You need to _be_ the change.'

 

Now, what the hell was that supposed to mean?

 

'You'll figure it out. But try not to destroy the ICU in the process.'

 

And that drops a stone in her stomach, because she hadn't even realised that.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Manga/Game Flash Bingo, #483 - rot  
> Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 3: event 7 - write a surprise

Nokia waved and left and Yuuko, in a normal setting, would've just shaken her head, not sure what to make of her. Aiba looked sheepish as he helped her up and apologised. Yuuko considered slapping the hand away, but reconsidered and let him help her up. RizeGreymon snarled at Aiba's partners but left them alone. Yuugo slept, oblivious. The white ghost was gone.

 

 _Be the change,_ Nokia said. But not become Yuugo. She already knew that was wrong. Maybe the ghost was unrelated, and she was just trying to push Yuugo on to him as well.

 

She sighed. She was suddenly empty. Lost. Without direction.

 

She ran her fingers through her brother's dry hair. 'Hey, Yuugo, you were always better at this instinct stuff. What do I do?'

 

'Relax.' She was sure that was in her head, mumbled and heavy with sleep, until Aiba snorted.

 

'That's a fine how do you do.'

 

It really was, though she hadn't a clue how that had happened. It didn't even matter that Yuugo's eyes were still closed, and would be for a few more days, or there were bomb-level damages to be explained, or that more people than she'd thought knew of her own little personal quest to wake her brother up before he was a rotting corpse, or that she hadn't a clue what happened _still._

 

Actually, that one did bother her a little, but not as much as it had until five minutes ago. But stil... 'Any clue how that happened?'

 

'Nope,' Aiba replied.

 


End file.
